This record differs from those under George Guest from St John's College, Cambridge (Argo) and from Peterborough Cathedral under Stanley Vann (Hyperion) in that Richard Hickox uses a mixed voice choir and to that extent does not follow the tradition established by Stainer himself, who wrote the work for the choir of the parish church of St Marylebone in London which gave its first performance there in 1887. It has remained almost entirely the property of parish church choirs up and down the country who have given countless performances ever since. So the choral sound of this recording is rather different; but the only question is not about tradition but how good the performance is and whether the voices of the more mature chorus sopranos justify the departure from the special sound of boy trebles.
The better trebles, if you insist on them, are to be heard in Cambridge rather than in Peterborough and when the choir is so good as that of St John's College, the sound is hard to beat. Nevertheless we have two excellent soloists on this new record and Luxon is certainly better than was Owen Brannigan who, for all his qualities, seemed unsuited to this work. On the St John's record Brian Runnett was an outstanding organist, though John Scott runs him very close. It is the St John's organ itself which has the trump card with its Trumpeta Real (if the pun may be allowed) used to thrilling effect early on in ''Fling wide the gates', one of the only two places where Stainer himself indicated any registration.
As to the conductors, Hickox gives on the whole a sympathetic account of the work, though I occasionally felt some lack of urgency in the singing and a particular character and clarity in the words. The first choral entry, for example, marked pp is ''Jesu, Lord Jesu'' with a rest where the comma is and then another rest before ''bowed in bitter anguish''. If you want the choir to get something more urgent than a static singing of such a passage they must 'think over' the rests and move forward over the whole phrase. Perhaps it is slightly slow (it is only andante) and there are other similar places throughout the work: and even though ''God so loved the world'' is certainly a static quartet its andante is firmly qualified by ma non lento; here it is an unqualified lento.
Both Guest and Hickox have a congregation to give the right contrast in the hymns. Vann at Peterborough has none but simply uses the choir. Hickox varies their treatment much more than Guest does, so that while they are more attractive to listen to, the contrast between choir and congregation is more effective in Guest's performance since he allows nothing other than straightforward hymn singing from everybody. As you will merely be listening you may well prefer Hickox in this aspect of the work. (All performances omit many verses so if you do otherwise prefer Guest you will not find the hymns too tedious, especially as Stainer's tunes are sturdy and good.)
There is much to enjoy in this new, excellently recorded, DMM processed HMV record, though I feel that because of Guest's long established rapport with his choir and his great experience of church music, his performance would be my own choice. Besides, it is now on Decca's bargain label and is appreciably cheaper.'